OK, let me just note something here. The seat was held by a Democrat; the Governor is a Democrat; the state government is more or less dominated by Democrats. The people of West Virginia seem more or less happy about this state of affairs, and state law really does suggest that there is an issue with the fact that the filing period for 2010 has already passed. Governor Manchin isn’t putting himself in the seat, and he’s probably not going to pull a Blagojevich and try to sell it to the highest Democratic bidder. There’s not much for us to work with with regard to pushing for a 2010 special election, sorry.

Besides, there’s a really, really important question that needs to be asked of every West Virginian Democrat interested in the seat: When it comes to cap-and-trade, do you stand with your State… or do you stand with the President? And there’s a follow-up: Are you prepared to defy the will of the national Democratic party and stand up for West Virginian coal production?

I predict that there’s going to be a lot of West Virginian Democrats who will be inclined to scurry away from both questions…